Completed - First 70.3

Congratulations. 

Don’t discount your accomplishment.  You trained.  You started.  You finished!

I did a duathlon in 2002 with no training and a sprint triathlon in 2008 with only run training since I didn't have access to a pool and didn't have a bike.  I did my first real Triathlon in 2015.  I got a bike, joined a gym, and did a local 70.3 race.  At age 37 my finish time was 7:02:22.  You beath my 70.3 debut by more than two minutes.  7 hours is a good effort for your first 70.3. 

I was thrilled with how well I did in my first 70.3. I did a 70.3 every year for the next 4-5 years.  Each time I raced I PR'd taking off about 20 minutes each time.

Yes...the run half killed me the first 2 years of doing 70.3 races.  I was expecting to run them about 10 minutes slower than my open half marathon time but they were about 40 minutes over my open half marathon time and were a real struggle. I now don't care how slow I run the first half of the run as long as I can run the second half faster. I usually feel like I am walking the first half of the run but when I look back at the splits I see that I am actually pretty close to my open half marathons pace.  When I hit the halfway turn around is when I start to focus on a race pace for the run.  If I have sufficiently sandbagged the first half of the run I can negative-split the last half, but I often find that after sandbagging the first half that I am still slower on the 2nd half.  It isn't by much through due to trying to go slow the first half of the run.  It took 3-4 years but my run times are now around 10 minutes over my open half marathon times.

Glad to hear you completed your 70.3 and did well on it.  I found BT when I was training for my first 70.3.  It was a huge part of what got me through my first race, and many races since then.  :-)

Congrats on your accomplishment!

The athletes that make up this forum are awesome and have great advice from all perspectives- you found a great source of knowledge

"Races" are really just a competition within ourselves. Only a small minority actually are there to win a medal. The rest of us are there for varying reasons. Never think your times are any less worthy than anyone else's. Sounds like you put in the training and had a great race, and that my friend is what it's all about!

Congratulations on your race!  It's great that folks are still getting something out of this site.